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Brigitte Lin

 
Actor: Brigitte Lin
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '80s-'90s
  • Major Genres: Action, Adventure
  • Career Highlights: Chungking Express, Peking Opera Blues, Swordsman II
  • First Major Screen Credit: Faster Blade, Poisonous Darts (1982)

Biography

An actress of striking intensity and fierce dedication to family life, Taiwanese born Brigitte Lin has thrilled audiences since her earliest film appearances in the early '70s. From the hopelessly romantic films of her early career to the powerful and mysterious costume fantasies of her later roles, Lin's stunning beauty and powerful screen presence lent itself successfully to a both the romantic and the fantastic. Born November 3, 1954, in Taiwan, Lin attended Taiwan Chingling Girls' Secondry School in her early years and later enrolled at Tanjiang General Education College. After being spotted by a film producer on the streets of Taipei in 1972, Lin made her film debut in Outside the Window, though due to legal complications, the film went unreleased. It was through her role in Window that Lin would find real-life romance with co-star Chin Han, though Han's marital status prevented the couple from pursuing their relationship despite various rumors and insinuations. Her formal debut and initial exposure came with her second film, Yun Piao Piao (Floating Clouds) a few short years later. Moving to California in the late '70s to escape the rumor mill and attend some college courses, Lin was romanced by and engaged to Charlie Chin, though the relationship soon fell through, due in part to Chin Han's divorce. It was shortly after this time that Lin's roles began to shift from the romantic to the fantastic, most notably with her role in director Tsui Hark's masterful, standard-setting fantasy Shu Shan (1983) (Lin would again team with Hark for the acclaimed Peking Opera Blues in 1986). Through the remainder of the '80s and into the '90s, Lin's career expanded as she became a staple of Hong Kong action/fantasy cinema. It was during this period that Lin made many of the films that would bring her familiarity to Western audiences. Her roles in the popular Swordsman films, and as the striking title character in the art-house hit The Bride With White Hair and its sequel, showcased an actress with dynamic abilities who could send shivers through audiences with her fearsome gaze. Lin won best actress at the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan for her role in Red Dust (1992), and also won acclaim for her role as Asia the Invincible in East is Red (1992). 1994 found Lin in the first of two collaborations with colorful Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai with her role in Ashes of Time, and brought the publicly unexpected marriage of Lin to businessman Michael Zing. Though she appeared in a few more films, Lin stated that she was retiring from the entertainment industry to dedicate herself to her marriage and her newborn daughter, making her final career appearance as the mysterious woman in the blonde wig in Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express (1994). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
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Brigitte Lin
Chinese name 林青霞
Chinese name 林青霞 (Traditional)
Chinese name 林青霞 (Simplified)
Pinyin Lin2 Qing1 Xia2 (Mandarin)
Ancestry Shandong
Origin Republic of China (Taiwan)
Born 3 November 1954 (1954-11-03) (age 55)
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
Occupation Actress
Years active 1973 - present
Spouse(s) Michael Ying
(June 29, 1994 - present)
Children Ying Oi Lam
(b.January 2, 1996)
Ying Yin Oi
(b.June 10, 2001)
Parents Lin Wai Leung (1919-2006)
Ma Nan Yin (1931-2002)
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Lin.

Brigitte Lin (Chinese: 林青霞pinyin: Lín Qīngxiá) or Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia (born 3 November 1954) is a Taiwanese actress. She retired in 1994, though had a minor role in the 1998 film Bishonen.

Biography

She was born in Taipei, and was "discovered" in 1972 by a film producer, and first appeared in many Taiwanese romance films based on the novels of Qiong Yao, also known as Chiung Yao. She later switched over to making movies in Hong Kong. At the height of her popularity she was arguably one of the most sought after actresses in the Chinese film industry. She starred in more than 100 movies[citation needed].

In Taiwan movies, Lin was almost always cast as the female protagonist in the Qiong Yao based movies she appeared in. Her film roles were often that of the ideal girl next door who everyone liked and all men wanted to be with. Her characters often will find love and then - when about to get married - or having just married - tragedy will strike. Often the tragedy is either her fiance's or husband's mother disapproves of her, her fiance or husband contracts some serious disease, her fiance or husband falls from a high place at his construction site job and is left in a coma, or similar plotlines. Usually the tragedy is overcome by the end of the movie and things end on a happy note. But, sometimes, not.

In Hong Kong movies, Lin made a career of playing transgender roles: in Peking Opera Blues she plays a tomboy who dresses in male Western clothes; in New Dragon Gate Inn she is a woman who dresses as a man, and in Swordsman II and III she plays a castrated male fighter slowly turning into a woman.

She married businessman Michael Ying in 1994 and left the film industry, and now lives in Hong Kong[citation needed]. She has two daughters, born in 1997 and 2001. She made her first public appearance since her marriage at a screening of "Ashes of Time Redux" at the 2008 New York Film Festival.

Partial filmography

Lin's hand prints and autograph on the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong
Year Title Awards
1980 Magnificent 72 Golden Horse Award Nomination:
Best Actress
1982 Fantasy Mission Force
1983 Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain Hong Kong Film Award Nomination:
Best Actress
1985 Police Story Hong Kong Film Award Nomination:
Best Actress
1986 Peking Opera Blues
1990 Red Dust Golden Horse Award:
Best Actress
1991 Swordsman II Hong Kong Film Award Nomination:
Best Actress
1992 New Dragon Gate Inn
Handsome Siblings Hong Kong Film Award Nomination:
Best Actress
Royal Tramp
Royal Tramp II
1993 Swordsman III
Deadful Melody
The Bride with White Hair
The Eagle Shooting Heroes
1994 Ashes of Time
Chungking Express
Fire Dragon
Semi-Gods and Semi-Devils
The Three Swordsmen
1998 Bishonen
2001 Peony Pavilion

External links


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Brigitte Lin" Read more